Obama Official: Planned Strikes Like Giving Assad a Fork to Eat His Cheerios

Speaking with USA Today this morning, an unnamed Obama administration official likened the planned strikes against Syria to giving Bashar al-Assad a fork to eat his cereal.

According to the report, the administration envisions the strikes as being limited in number and extending over only a day or two.

“It could be completed in one fell swoop with missiles, said one senior official familiar with the weapons involved,” reported USA Today. “A smaller, follow-on strike could be launched if targets aren’t sufficiently damaged.”

But another Obama official dropped this somewhat odd cereal metaphor to explain the planned strikes:

A second senior official, who has seen the most recent planning, offered this metaphor to describe such a strike: If Assad is eating Cheerios, we’re going to take away his spoon and give him a fork. Will that degrade his ability to eat Cheerios? Yes. Will it deter him? Maybe. But he’ll still be able to eat Cheerios.

So there’s that. Assad will still be able to eat his Cheerios if he so desires.